What to make of Cam Johnson-MPJ trade, rest of Brooklyn Nets’ start to free agency

The first day of free agency is complete. How’d they do?

The crown jewel of the Brooklyn Nets’ offseason in 2025 was always going to be the NBA Draft, as it should be for any rebuilding franchise. They made history by making an unprecedented five first-round picks; you may have heard about.

But they had little time to rest and recover. Monday signaled the start of free agency, and the Nets were as active as they could be. They exercised team options on four players and re-signed two of their own restricted free agents, but still have some questions to answer regarding next year’s roster. A lot of questions.

We have to start, though, with their biggest move so far: the trade.

Cam Johnson for a pristine pick

Technically, the Brooklyn Nets traded for NBA champion Michael Porter Jr. on Monday night. But what they really did was swap out Cam Johnson for perhaps the juiciest pick on the trade market: an unprotected 2032 first-rounder from the Denver Nuggets.

That’s what this comes down to. It’s no secret that Brooklyn has been shopping Johnson for some time, but General Manager Sean Marks never felt compelled to pull the trigger, haggling to the point of no return with the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors over the past year.

It’s hard to argue with the results. Yes, Johnson has fetched just one pick, but it is a golden one, an unprotected Denver first-rounder past the end of Nikola Jokić’s prime, if not his career. Don’t worry that much of the draft class of 2032 is in sixth grade right now. Brooklyn hopes to be good before then, and when it’s time to go all-in, they’ll have a golden trade asset at their disposal.

As for Michael Porter Jr., he is owed $79 million dollars over the next two seasons. While a negative asset because of his salary now, he may have some rehabilitation potential in Brooklyn, playing under former coach Jordi Fernández. He makes real basketball sense on this version of the Nets, a 3-point shooting haven for all the recent draftees that love to pass the work, but not so much sense that he’ll impede having high pick in next year’s draft.

Who knows, maybe Sean Marks will even be able to turn him into a heavily protected first-rounder or some seconds in due time? And if not, that’s no great tragedy.

Of course, Porter Jr. arrives with some caveats, including a famously balky back. However, he’s only missed 26 regular-season games over the last seasons total. He did however, suffer a shoulder injury in round one of the 2025 playoffs that thereafter severely limited his impact, but Brooklyn won’t have to worry about the playoffs even with MPJ on the team.

Off the court, the 27-year-old has also made some questionable-at-best comments about transgender people and the WNBA, though perhaps playing in Brooklyn will change his mind on both subjects.

As for Cam Johnson, he may not have been a Nets Great, but he was a great Net, at least to me. Some fans soured on him in 2024, when he was either missing time with ankle sprains or missing every clutch three he took.

But in 2023, he had a fantastic playoff series vs. the Philadelphia 76ers. And in 2025, he never gave the slightest inclination of wanting out of Brooklyn, though he would’ve been well within rights to do so. Instead, he powered through constant trade rumors to make significant individual improvements, tried to play through every bruise and tweak, and was the best interview on the team. His teammates would tell you the same. The coaching staff and the front office love that guy, and understandably so. That’s no small part of why he wasn’t traded earlier.

For his efforts, Cam Johnson will get to play with Nikola Jokić on a contending Denver Nuggets team. Basketball heaven.

Day’Ron and Ziaire return on team-friendly deals

Brooklyn had withheld the qualifying offer from Day’Ron Sharpe and Ziaire Williams, making them both unrestricted free agents — in name only. Sharpe and Williams both returned to Brooklyn on two-year, $12 million contracts. As Brian Lewis put it in the New York Post:

If the Nets had tendered qualifying offers to Sharpe ($5.98 million) and Williams ($8.35 million) to make them restricted free agents, the combined cap holds for both would have actually been $30 million. The danger is Williams likely would’ve immediately signed the qualifying offer, while Sharpe’s cap hold of $12 million would’ve tied up the Nets’ other business.

The only oddity here is that Sharpe and Williams now share the same contract, as Sharpe may have been (briefly) the second-best free agent center on the market behind Myles Turner. He and Williams are Nets again, and the reasoning isn’t hard to understand.

Both players have seen their stock rise tremendously. Sharpe has proved himself not just rotation-worthy, but maybe even good over the last two seasons, while Williams has resuscitated his NBA career as a Net…

If this trend keeps up, they’ll be in line for serious paydays in two years’ time. Before that, they may become valuable trade assets for a Nets team that could be facing a roster crunch (more on that soon).

In any case, this was business as usual.

D’Angelo Russell, Trendon Watford depart

As was this. Trendon Watford headed to the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year minimum deal, while D’Angelo Russell headed to the Dallas Mavericks for $13 million over two seasons.

Watford gets the multi-year stability he openly pined for before free agency kicked off, and a chance to play both next to childhood friend Tyrese Maxey and on a contender. D’Angelo Russell has much of the same in Dallas, though instead of Maxey, he’ll share yet another locker room with Spencer Dinwiddie.

Brooklyn drafted a ton of ball-handling prospects. There are only so many minutes to go around. The team projects to be real bad in 2026. As such, T-Wat and D’Lo are off to greener pastures, and nobody should be all too surprised.

Nets exercise four team options, decline another

Some of your favorite characters form the 2025 season are back! Namely, Keon Johnson, Tyrese Martin, Jalen Wilson and Drew Timme. Sadly, Maxwell Lewis will not return, after Brooklyn waived him just before free agency opened.

The four returners are on veteran minimums — around $2 million — though are non-guaranteed. Let Net Income explain:

Johnson and Wilson are now partially guaranteed at $271,614 and $88,075, respectively through NBA Opening Night, October 22. If they make the Nets final roster, Johnson’s guarantee jumps to $760,000 while Wilson’s goes to $381,695. Like all players on non and partially guaranteed deals. they and Timme can be waived up to January 10.

Lewis had an extension outstanding and the Nets will have to pay him $100,000.

Though Jalen Wilson had a disappointing sophomore season, there’s no reason to cut bait on him, going into just his third year in the league. Keon Johnson did everything Jordi Fernández asked him to and more in 2025, and is probably has more value as a culture-setting grinder than he does on the court. Still, it’s a fantastic story for a guy who saved his career at 2024 Las Vegas Summer League, and not too dissimilar from Tyrese Martin’s.

Meanwhile, there is a semi-realistic chance Drew Timme is an offensively viable backup big (I know, hold onto your seatbelts), a chance that’s worth exploring for Brooklyn.

Remaining questions for the Brooklyn Nets

Take a look at this projected lineup from NBA TV…

Throw Sharpe and Williams in there, and that’s 16 players who have an argument for minutes next season. Sixteen!

Many of the five rookies will likely see time in the G League, much to the dismay of Nets fans, but to the delight of the development team and Morgan Taylor, the Long Island vice president looking to put people in the seats at Nassau Coliseum. Nearly every successful draft pick under the Sean Marks regime has utilized Long Island at one point or another. Even then, though, there isn’t enough tick to go around.

Nic Claxton, entering his age-26 season, sticks out like a sore thumb. Now two years removed from the peak of his trade value, teams likely aren’t willing to shell out real draft capital for him. Or financially able to, for that matter. But Day’Ron Share once again feasting on teams’ lowly backup centers doesn’t do much to further Brooklyn’s long-term goals. He deserves a greater challenge, and likely fits Brooklyn’s on-court vision under Jordi Fernández a bit more, given the passing and dribble-handoff flashes he’s shown.

But what can the Nets realistically do with Claxton? Not such an easy question to answer.

There’s also the matter of Cam Thomas, who did receive the qualifying offer from Brooklyn, and thus, remains a restricted free agent. Brooklyn will be bidding against themselves here, as they currently possess about $17 million in cap space, more depending on what they ultimately do with non-guaranteed deals. That dwarfis all other teams except for the Detroit Pistons, who seem focused on landing a different combo guard…

Regardless, Cam Thomas seems destined to return to Brooklyn. Even in the event of some more unforeseen trades, the Nets can go over the cap to re-sign him, since his free agency is restricted.

Per Brian Lewis, again,

Some that spoke with The Post opined Thomas will earn over $20 million annually. ESPN Insider and former Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks suggested over the weekend that he could re-sign in Brooklyn for three years and $54 million.

If he does, plenty of shots will be waiting for the soon-to-be 24-year-old. But there will be a minutes logjam that the Nets need to navigate. Dariq Whitehead, for example, is facing his make-or-break year, and should probably see some extended run. Noah Clowney needs to recapture the momentum he built at the end of his rookie year. There’s also, again, (at least) five rookies.

Sean Marks may have made his biggest move of the offseason on Monday evening, executing the Cam Johnson-Michael Porter Jr. swap. But he’s probably not done yet.

Amidst all the chaos, the Brooklyn Nets will be holding a press conference on Tuesday afternoon to introduce their rookie class. We’ll have coverage right after on NetsDaily, and be live on Twitter/X during the event.